¡Buen Camino!

Dear Friends,
It has taken three tries and nine years, but as of July 2012, I have finally walked the entire Way of Compostela from my former home in Leuven/Louvain, Belgium, to Santiago de Composela!
My first pilgrimage experience from the French frontier with Spain to Santiago itself took place in 2003. You can read the details of this first walk along the famous Camino across Spain in my book, To The Field of Stars: A Pilgrim's Journey to Santiago de Compostela, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (2008). (You can order it from the publisher, from Amazon.com, or from your local bookseller).
In the summer and early fall of 2007, I walked from Belgium most of the way across France, with the hope of at least making it to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port near the Spanish border, where I began the first pilgrimage. I didn't quite make it. A bad case of plantar fasciitis took me down in the Bordeaux village of Sainte-Ferme. I continued on to Santiago by train and bus, but the "defeat of my feet" and those last 175 miles or so that were left undone, gnawed at me over the ensuing five years. Happily, I was finally able to wrap up this grand pilgrimage with a third walk from Sainte-Ferme to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port this past summer (2012). It was a joy to have completed all 2,370 kilometers between Leuven and Santiago.
My adventures and misadventures, my thoughts and prayers of both the 2007 and 2012 pilgrimages have been shared in this blog. I will leave the blog and its archives open for some time to come; if you want to read bits and pieces of it, feel free, but remember that the beginning is at the bottom and the end is at the top.
My contact e-mail remains the same: kacodd@gmail.com; I am always happy to receive mail!
As the pilgrims in Spain greet one another, so I greet you, my reader: "Buen Camino!"
And as the people of France greet their pilgrims along the "Chemin", I also wish to you: "Courage!"

Grace and peace to you all!
Kevin

Friday, September 7, 2007

Bazoches


Only fifteen kilometers from Vezelay, this hamlet is another world: all farms and fully rural except for two grand chateaus in the vicinity. The route out of Vezelay was very well marked with Compostelle arrows, something new. Much of it was an old Roman road. The hills of Burgundy are not insignificant, and it seemed I was climbing more than descending: today’s fifteen kilometers were work! Last night I was invited to concelebrate Vespers and Mass with the Fraternity of Jerusalem in Vezelay’s Basilica of Mary Magdalene; the liturgy was the very image of “solemn simplicity.” I was honored to be there and pray with them. Gene and Caroline Foley, my guardian angels who have stayed close during these last few days of trying out my tendons and walking again, left for Leuven after breakfast this morning. How grateful I am for their unstinting support and encouragement in getting me out on the Way again! Tomorrow will bring me to Corbigny, I hope!

Posted by Kevin A. Codd at 10:01 PM